Tim Bevan

• All funding for staff and development came from Universal. They are also responsible for most of the distribution.

• When making  film the production team put the script, budget and cast wish list together making a   "package". This "package" Is then sent off to the studio where it is decided wether or not it is "green-lighted". This decision is made after the potential income is calculated.(to be continued)

How does the Skins promo trailer create representation of young people?

The Skins series 1 promo trailer represents young people in several different ways using several different techniques. To show how this is achieved I will be looking at such aspects: editing, camera angles and movement, sound and mise-en-scene.

It could be argued that the camera angles are POV shots of different parts of the night. This helps the audience too relate to what is going on. This allows the audience to get a real insight to a young person’s party and therefore draw conclusions such as young people like to have fun as seen in the first half of the promo, but not so sensible in the second half. A similar effect can also been seen with there being a selection of low camera angles in the first half show that the characters are superior to the rest of the world at this point but is contrasted with high angle shots in the second half showing that they don’t have control and maybe representing young people as not being sensible. In most of the shots you can see the character’s faces and most are not covered up showing that nothing is being hidden therefore the trailer maybe saying that this is what all young people are like. Having the camera mainly showing faces it lets the audience see the emotions of the characters.

Some conclusions can be drawn about youths from just the very little editing of this trailer. There are short sharp cut between each clip, of which they are only seconds long. However short the clips maybe it gives us quite a big overview of the party. The short sharp cuts from scene to scene represent how changeable young people’s lives are. The cuts could also represent how fast childhood really goes.

The sound track “Standing in the way of control” along with the drugs being taken in the trailer shows that the characters don’t have much control over the way they’re behaving. The song is upbeat emphasising the speed of which childhood passes to becoming an adult. The music slows down in the middle of the trailer when the party takes a turn for the worst. At the end of the trailer the music slows right down and kind of dies out indicating that the party has come to an end this may represent how young people may have moments of craziness but soon die down.

The first thing you see in the trailer that is very representative of young people is the record. Teenage life now-a-days tends to revolve around music and serves as a big influence on people’s lives. The record also link in with the song being played in the background saying that young people aren’t very responsible and just want to have fun. A person in a bear suit dancing is seen shortly after. We generally represent bears with when you are a child, as this is a bear suit we would think a parent would wear this at a child’s party but as this is worn by a teenager at this party it shows that they aren’t children anymore but are in fact turning into adults. Reports of drug use is quite often in the news and is generally frowned upon. As drug use is being shown in the trailer anybody of a different age may generalise drug use to all teenagers. Other things contrast in this trailer such as the water guns and the lipstick. The water guns may represent childhood and having carefree fun whereas the lipstick represents being grown up and sophisticated.

In conclusion the trailer generally represents young people in a negative light to people who may be of a different age. It shows a group of people having fun but also being quite irresponsible, people may frown upon this and not see young people as being grown up although this is just a party and not just a normal day. I don’t think that the trailer is very representative of all young people as there are several different sub cultures within today’s society.

Narrative Theories

Vladimir Propp
Characters, according to Propp, have a narrative function; they provide a structure for the text. He identifies 8 characters:

1. The Hero – a character that seeks something
2. The Villain – who opposes or actively blocks the hero’s quest
3. The Donor – who provides an object with magical properties
4. The Dispatcher – who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message
5. The False Hero – who disrupts the hero’s success by making false claims
6. The Helper – who aids the hero
7. The Princess – acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villain’s plots
8. Her Father – who acts to reward the hero for his effort

He also indentifies 6 stages of the narrative:

1. Preparation
2. Complication
3. Transference
4. Struggle
5. Return
6. Recognition

Tzvetan Todorov
Believed that there are five stages to narrative structure.

1. A state of Equilibrium. (All as is if it should be)
2. A disruption to that order (by an event)
3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.
4. An attempt to repair the damage.
5. A return or restoration to start a NEW equilibrium. 

Roland Barthes
Barthes came up with 5 codes that are "woven" into any narrative.

1. Action code - Events taking place.
2. Enigma code - Questions raised & answered.
3. Semantic code - Characters & characterisation.
4. Referential code - Information  & explanation.
5. Symbolic code - Connotations of signs.

Claude Levi-Strauss
Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary opositions are sets of opposite values which reveals the structure of media texts. For example good and evil, young and old, male and female ect. Levi-Strauss was not interested in the order events were arranged in the plot.

Converging A Game Show

The game show I have chosen to converge is "Hole in the Wall" i have chosen "Hole in the Wall" as there are many ways you could converge the show e.g. internet streams, video games, iPhone apps, interactive online features and even chances to donate to the final prize. The synopsis of "Hole in the Wall" is explained below.

Synopsis

The first round is Solo Wall, which sees a celebrity chosen by their team captain standing in the Play Area, which is immediately adjacent to a pool of water. After a 3 second countdown, a screen rises, revealing a wall with a hole in it. The wall advances and the celebrity has ten seconds or so to adopt a position which will enable them to pass through the hole in the wall. Ten points are awarded for successfully doing so; a lesser number of points are awarded at the host's discretion for failing in style. A member of the opposing team then does the same challenge with a different wall. 

The second round is the Captain's Challenge which alters format each week, but usually involves attempting a wall blindfolded with their team-mates giving instructions, or attempting a wall facing backwards, again with their team-mates giving verbal assistance. Other variations include having to pass through a wall whilst holding a prop, such as a space hopper or an umbrella, or having to complete a wall with one of their two team-mates. Points are arbitrarily awarded, from a maximum of 20. 

Round three is Killer Question or Mystery Guest. Here the team who is in the lead picks which of the two options they want to play. The other team then plays the remaining challenge. In Killer Question, two team-mates face a wall with a question and two possible answers marked on doors. They must quickly work out the answer and both stand in front of the door with what they think is the correct answer on it. If they are correct, the door gives way, and they pass through the wall. If not, the solid wall knocks them both into the water. In Mystery Guest, one team member must attempt a wall with that week's special guest, who usually has, or can create, an unusual shape with their body or costume, e.g. sumo wrestlers, Can-Can dancers, or ballerinas. Points are somewhat randomly assigned once again. 

The penultimate round is the Team Wall. This is a straightforward round which sees all three team members attempt to complete a wall at the same time. Up to 30 points are on offer to each team in this round for all three team members successfully completing the challenge. After this the final points are calculated, and the team with the most points has the choice of playing or passing the final wall, the Mega Wall, which we are reliably informed is evil and goes at double speed. The Mega Wall sees all three members of a team participate and they must all pass through the wall in order to win £10,000 for their chosen charity. Fail, and the money goes to the other team's charity. 

Production

The game show is film in a studio with a live audience. If this were to be streamed online you could give users the choice of what camera angle they want to view and even give online viewers a chance to look through a helmet camera or other place webcams that TV viewers cannot. Keeping on the theme of the game show being on the internet, people who are viewing online could be given the choice to pay some money to vote for the next wall to appear against the celebrities. If this game show were to be converted into a video game it could be produced for different platforms i.e. Xbox 360 Kinect, PS3 Move and the Nintendo Wii. All of these utilise your body’s movement to perform actions on the screen. You could quite easily make a video game for these platforms. Some features that might be in the games could be: Campaign, Time Trial, increasing wall speed and various score boards so you can compare your score with your friends and other people around the world.

Distribution

The TV show would be shown on BBC before watershed as it is a family show and appeals to a large audience. It could also be broad cast on the internet for people to watch and to vote. For the video game version of "Hole in the Wall" it could be sold at video game retailers such as "Game" and "HMV". It could also be bought from online stores such as "Play" and "Amazon".

Marketing

As the game show contestants are celebrities you can't advertise for contestants unless a new series was made of which it had the general public as the contestants, then places for contestants could be advertised on their official website or at the end of the show. The show could be promoted through social network sites such as "Facebook". Most young people have "Facebook" and from my experience spend a lot of time on it so if the game show had it's own page it could attract a lot of attention rather quickly. I am currently subscribed to Game's weekly newsletter it tells me all the deals on, new games out, games that will arrive later in the year and suggests games for me judging on the games I have bought before. The video game aspect of this game show could pick up a lot of publicity if it were advertised on newsletter like this.

Technologies

The technologies that would be needed to use other than film equptment for the base show would be HD webcams as users expect to have a high quality picture when viewing a profesional programme. Other technologies would mainly include the internet for streaming the show and advertising. 

Thriller Opening Evaluation

Thriller Opening Evaluation

View more documents from mediadanieljones.

What is TV Drama?

TV Dramas:
Corronation Street
Eastenders
House of Cards
Pride and Predjudice
Shameless
Holby City
Jerico
Merlin
Miss Marple
Skins
The Sweeney
Dr who
Casualty

TV Drama and Oher Genre:
Agatha Christie's Poirot (Detechtive Drama)
Casualty (Medical Drama)
Holby City (Medical Drama)
Enemy at the Door (Historical Drama)
Foyle's Drama (Police Drama)
Heartbeat (Police Drama)
Inspector Morse (Detective Drama)
Murphey's Law (Police Drama)
Poldark (Historical Drama)

Different Kinds of TV Dramas:
(To be continued...)

Production Logo

Name Ideas:
We wanted a production company logo at the start of our thriller. So I set about thinking of thriller conventions which could be used as a company name i also made an acronym of our names for a company name. Here is the outcome...

• JND Production
• Thriller Pictures
• Running Water Productions
• Barred Productions
• Colourless Productions
• Isolation Pictures

I will be using Adobe Fireworks to create and edit graphics for the logo and Adobe Flash to animate the logo. The text font for our company logo can be fount here!



Here is the sequence of our company logo



Here is what the finished product looks like!

(Sound will be added when it is imported into Final Cut)